Social Participatory Teaching and Learning – Lessons from a Partnership of Industrial Designers and Local Artisans (original) (raw)
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Artisanal, handmade products created in Mexico are often in need of an update, which could help them to enter into new markets. Otherwise, commoditization and the lack of new offers could drive traditional techniques into extinction, along with the artisanal knowledge embedded within such techniques. The goal of this study was to define the connection between design methods and artisanal production processes through a series of collaborative workshops. On the basis of the research through design methodology, a proposal is presented for the development of neo-craft products defined during collaborative workshops involving Mexican artisans and designers. The present article presents a summary of the methodology and results of a workshop developed during 2017 as part of the Programme for the Development of Productivity and Competitiveness of the Artisanal Sector in Querétaro, Mexico. The results demonstrate the potential offered by design tools within the artisanal praxis. Once artisans participate in and understand the design process, they are not only capable of visualizing new sets of products but are also convinced about the need for repeating the process and including it in the structure of their own workshops. The application of design methods within the artisanal praxis can generate new values and thus foster a sense of autonomy and resilience.
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Ways of doing: exercising dialogues between design, handicraft and social innovation
This article deals with the ways of doing of a handicraft group, that is, how they act, how they use memory and traditions, the inputs in their natural environment, of artifacts, imagination and their bodies; How they articulate themselves with their abilities. For this article, we cut the research Design and Handicraft: Sharing Paths for Social Innovation, held between August 2014 and October 2016, where we investigated the group MulheresFatechas, formed by fisherwomen-shellfish-artists-artisans, after participating in a design project to promote handicrafts. The objective of the research was to understand how a design project impacted the construction of knowledge, empowerment and the relationship between the group and the environment. To do so, we used ethnography and the theoretical basis of Anthropology of the Imaginary in order to understand the symbolic and organizing relations of the group (MulheresFatechas) from recurrent images in photographic records and videos, interviews, documents, drawings, meetings and life experiences at the field. The methodology adopted came from a perspective of practical performance of the designer next to the group and they made bridges/dialogues with the theoretical contribution of the Social Sciences and Social Innovation, resulting in the construction of the more general aspects of the group's ways of doing, namely: learning, cooperation and engagement, and their respective indicators. Therefore, in the article, when we consider how the subject cooperates with his group/network from the reflected, articulated, constructed and realized actions in their context, we aim to discuss the relations between language/imagination and the knowledge acquired with the corporal practices; The rituals of cooperation as a way of doing handicrafts; and the making of poetry linked to the engagement involving artists-artisans, designers and the community, contributing / building the constructions between the realities of design, handicrafts and social innovation.
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Strategic Design Research Journal, 2018
The focus of this article is on the relationship between design and craftsmanship in the Brazilian scenario of social projects with craft production. It presents the importance of collective and collaborative actions as forms of mediation in this scenario. The article argues that in order to develop a design mindset that expands beyond projective practices and takes into account the social and political context for more sustainable solutions in environmental, social and economic levels, the mediation has to be collaborative. In the paper, a parallel is outlined between this collective, collaborative and complex work of design and the multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches. To address the complexity of this subject, practical examples are identified to show the important strategic role that the designer plays in these social innovation processes. Keywords: crafts, collaborative design, social innovation, interdisciplinarity.
Craft-Design Collaboration Between Design Education and the Local Context: A Case Study
2016
This proposal aims to investigate and validate the design action by interpreting a culture of making (La Pietra, 1997) applied to the case of the development of straw articles, typical from Fafe region (Northern Portugal), supported by the concept of design experience (Brown, 2005). The first part explores the technique of straw utilization in order to understand their leverage on design method. The second part presents arguments that sustain that the technique can reach a new existence, if framed in connection with Academy and business reality. To support this idea, the authors present a project, initiated with the participation of 30 undergraduate design students. As a result, the projects scope is focused on the exploitation of the straw concept, moving towards its application in different scenarios. Methodologically the authors use the logic of meta-design (Mendini, 1969), connecting the Academy to the community. In educational terms it is intended to guide design student learn ...
This paper analyzes some self-production and craft processes which can contribute to social innovation. Object of this research is the concept of self-production, considered as a humancentered design process held by a designer-maker who, working within a community of artisans or a platform of digital fabrication, manages the entire process, from design, to production, distribution and communication. This research covers a broad spectrum of material that relates to the changing landscape within the design world and beyond, drawing the heterogeneity and complexity of self-production. Diverse approaches developed in the contemporary design scene have been mapped, defining new relationships and highlighting peculiarities, strengths and weaknesses. Linking these diverse approaches is the new role of the designer, who embraces wider areas and acts as catalyst of social innovation, actively involving diverse actors in the design process. Such a figure embodies both the designer’s knowledge and the maker’s know-how, implementing either artisan productions or digital fabrications, shared within a close relationship with craft communities or virtual platforms for Do-It-Yourself. Self-production seems to be not an anachronistic situation, but an interesting opportunity, which addresses the increasing demand for flexible and diversified productions, able to connect local realities with global markets. Such an approach seems to provide young designers with a viable opportunity to start from the bottom, opening up new start-ups on their own to counter the current crisis of the work world. Design can be a key guide for transforming the current scenario into an advanced craftsmanship. It has to rescue its social and economic relevance and foster local innovative initiatives that seek social innovation and sustainable development of a territory.
2014
Industrial design is concerned with meeting social needs, providing users with products that improve their quality of life. The Industrial Design program at the University of Bio-Bio in Concepcion, Chile promotes this aim by offering a “User-centred design” (UCD) workshop for third-year students. The DCU workshop uses project-based learning, and employs a methodology that takes the user as its starting point, shifting the paradigm from “designing for” to “designing with” the user. In 2012, design students joined a collaborative project led by the non-governmental organization “Un Techo para Chile” (TECHO), benefitting low-income families living in state-housing projects in the Nonguen Valley. This initiative focused on developing practical solutions to residents’ needs by involving them in product design. Participation in both decision-making and co-creation provided a space of trust and confidence between design students and community members which emphasized the social responsibil...
Artesanías vs Design: Unveiling Design Hegemonies over Traditional Crafts in Chile
Proceedings of the DHS Annual Conference 2021 "Memory Full? Reimagining The Relations Between Design And History", 2022
This contribution critically follows design as a component for economic and cultural production interwoven with craftsmanship in Chile, putting in tension the promotion of modern design in 'artesanías' as a tool for development that has been encouraged in the country and the region via discourses of modernity, growth and progress. From these perspectives, and following UNESCO's vision of human development, diverse Chilean institutions have considered the design discipline to innovate among the cultural industries, mainly in crafts, since design suppose to assist, improve and stimulate the consumption of artisanal production. However, the interactions between designers and artisans remain controversial since the latter has firmly rejected their need for professional design in recent encounters. Against this background, this contribution traces frictions in discourses and different design interventions over crafts deployed in Chile after the 1990s, mainly through the analysis of press clips from the Programa de Artesanía UC archive. At the same time, and based on an ethnographic approach, it examines the extent of the modern design interventions in the village of Pomaire, a relevant community of pottery makers in the country that has been associated with artisanal tradition and with national identity. From this case study and based on the perception of the artisans about design interventions, this paper addresses two hegemonic paths through which modern design operates in artisanal production, assessing how, through the use of historic, aesthetics and manufacturing aspects, design for crafts can be related to an 'economy of enrichment' that turns cultural production into commodities.